We had a great time at Suzuka; the opportunity to show the Koenigsegg One:1 to so many people in this way is a rare one indeed.

People can see our cars at motor shows around the world but a motor show is a static experience. The car is either standing still or rotating on a turntable and when you’re talking about one of the world’s rarest and most capable performance cars, we know that people want to see the car in action.

Last Saturday, at Suzuka, we had the chance to give people what they want: the Koenigsegg One:1 lapping one of the world’s premier racing circuits.

A few notes about the day’s laps….

This was not an all-out Time Attack. Our appearance at Suzuka was not a competitive appearance and there was no official timing performed during the session. This was an opportunity to share the car with the public in a broad sense, and share the car with clients and partners in a more personal sense.

We had a half-hour slot on the track and our factory driver, Robert Serwanski, was at the wheel for three of the four lap ‘sessions’ during that half-hour. Each session consisted of an ‘out’ lap to warm up the car, a ‘fast’ lap at speed and then an ‘in’ lap to cool the car prior to a new passenger getting in.

This was Robert’s first time ever at Suzuka Circuit and he drove about 20 laps of the circuit in total. Consider how long it takes to learn all the nuances of a track to drive it with confidence at extreme speed and you’ll realise that 20 laps is only scratching the surface

The car was running what we could call a standard setup with only mild modifications made to the aero package on the first day we were there. It was in no way an ‘extreme’ setup, which involves a lot of custom settings based on extensive experience and knowledge of a particular track (e.g. Nurburgring). The setup was so standard, in fact, that we weren’t even running on E85, which is the optimum top-power fuel for use in the Koenigsegg One:1.

Here’s the video. A few numbers from the drive – including our internally recorded lap time – as well as some thoughts from Robert are included after the video.

Our best recorded lap time in this half-hour slot was 2:17.57. The Koenigsegg One:1 is a production car and this session was done on the same production tyres that a customer would get from the factory.

This time is from our own data-logging system, which was connected to the car on the day. It is not an official time and has no external standing.

But it’s reassuring, nonetheless.

The best lap time that we’ve been able to find online for a production car at Suzuka was a Nissan GT-R at 2:18.36. To have potentially beaten this time at our first outing while running a standard setup, with little exposure to the track beforehand, with a passenger inside the car during all laps and with brakes that had to be nursed a little throughout the session, was very encouraging indeed.

Our data-logging system also recorded a maximum 1.72 G’s at 180km/h in one of the corners, which shows just how well the aerodynamic setup helps with the car’s grip. Robert spent some time in the days leading up to this drive session making adjustments to the Koenigsegg One:1 programmable aerodynamics and it certainly helped.

A few thoughts from Robert:

“The car performed extremely well but there’s no doubt that with more time invested in getting to know the track and the optimal setup, it could go much faster.

We had to take care of the brakes a little. It was an oversight on our part, but we didn’t put new pads in before shipping the car to Japan and we didn’t bring fresh pads with us. Hard braking was an issue as a result, which will influence the speed at which you approach a corner.

While we were carrying an extra person in the car in all of our laps, this wasn’t a big factor. It does affect your steering and braking at the limit, but we were not at the limit today. The confidence to be at the limit requires a lot more knowledge of the intricacies of the track and that only comes with hours and hours of time on the tarmac.

Suzuka is a wonderful track and well deserves its reputation as one of the most challenging and rewarding tracks in the world.”